


The Inquisitor's Tale

by Elendiliel



Series: Lightning Strikes [27]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Gen, Pre-Battle of Endor (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:34:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29784453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elendiliel/pseuds/Elendiliel
Summary: Lightning and Thunder Squadrons' survey of the Endor system brought back rather more than just intelligence. Their leader, Helli Abbasa, also found an ex-Inquisitor, with stormtroopers in hot pursuit. Of course Hel couldn't leave her behind - but now both Jedi and former Jedi hunter have a lot of explaining to do.
Series: Lightning Strikes [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2087898





	The Inquisitor's Tale

**Author's Note:**

> This is the direct sequel to "Once a Jedi..." (Part 24 of _Lightning Strikes_ , Part 9 of _Storms and Rebellions_ ), and therefore also takes place a little while before the Battle of Endor.

“You’ve gone too far this time, Abbasa.”

It was the use of her surname that told Jedi Knight Helli Abbasa that Mon Mothma was _really_ annoyed with her. She and the gentle but steadfast Chandrilan Senator had known each other, to varying degrees and on and off, for over twenty standard years, and had been on first-name terms for some time. Mon rarely raised her voice, but at that point it was a definite option. Helli wanted to try to head her off before that happened, but instinct told her to hold her tongue and wait for a better opportunity.

“When you wanted to bring an ex-stormtrooper to us, I supported you. I know what Torrent’s done for you, and for the galaxy, and what it cost. And I have some idea of what he means to you personally. But this woman – all I know about her is that she’s a professional Jedi hunter, and a servant of Vader. What were you _thinking_?”

“ _Was_ a hunter, I think you’ll find. And to answer your question, I was thinking that she was in trouble and needed my help, and that the Force was encouraging me to give it.”

That put a slight obstacle in the path of Mon’s fury. She wasn’t Force-sensitive herself, but she respected those who were, and the Force itself. But she hadn’t been entirely deflected. “Even so, you must see how reckless your actions will seem to others. You brought an Inquisitor here. A trained killer.”

“We’ve no shortage of those already. And technically, she’s also a trained peacemaker, like me.” Had this been a physical battle, Helli would have been in full-on guarding mode, her defences like a durasteel wall, letting Mon tire herself out, counterattacking more out of habit than from strategy. It was working. Helli had no intention of letting anything happen to her new sister Nai, whatever it cost, certainly not before she could get a fair trial, and Mon was beginning to grasp that fully. Beginning.

“You have a point. But I can’t ignore her more recent past. You know better than I do what the Inquisitorius has done to your Order. For all we know, she might have killed one of your friends.”

“She did. And it doesn’t make any difference to me. She was as much a victim of Sith conditioning as any clone, or any stormtrooper.” _Or Anakin_. _That_ was a wormhole through which she didn’t want to go. “And again, the operative word in that sentence is _was_.”

“Oh, really…” Mon shook her head in exasperation at the Jedi’s skewed view of the galaxy, relative to that of most of the Rebellion. “All right. If you say she’s on our side now, I trust you. But the other leaders are unlikely to see things your way. _I_ barely do. I don’t think she’ll be allowed to stay.”

“If she goes, I go.” Helli put all the sincerity she could muster into the words. She meant them with all her heart. “The others can stay if they want, but Nai won’t last five minutes if – Vader – finds her now. I don’t know what she did, but he won’t be happy about it. She _needs_ me, more than you do.” Ever since she had learned Darth Vader’s true identity, using his title had been a struggle.

“That might earn you a few votes.” Mon was still a born politician, even now. “But I reserve judgement until I can speak to her myself. Where is she?”

“Still in surgery, as far as I know. AZI nearly blew a fuse when he saw her injuries, and the damage to her prosthetic. If I understood him correctly, it’s a miracle she stayed on her feet as long as she did. Watching him commandeer an operating theatre was quite something. He’ll call me when there’s news.” AZI-3, Lightning Seven, was a Kaminoan medical droid and official medic to Helli’s strike team. She trusted him even more than the Alliance’s own med-droids.

As though on cue, Helli’s commlink buzzed on her wrist. “Hel-li, the surgery was a success, and Padawan Douzar is awake and asking for you.” AZI-3 was not given to wasting words. Or unnecessary formalities.

“Thanks, AZI. I’m on my way.” She glanced at Mon, reading her intention from her body language and expression. “Along with Senator Mothma.”

Helli didn’t know how many people in the Alliance knew what her guest had been until recently, but she wasn’t taking chances, and had stationed Torrent and Fives outside the operating theatre. Reassuringly, they nearly challenged the visitors before recognising them and relaxing back into their normal watchfulness. Helli’s brief grin, and her brothers’ answering flick-smiles, contained a conversation’s worth of teasing and banter that Mon would not have found appropriate. Helli pulled herself together. “Any trouble?”

“None. The Rebellion might leak like a sieve internally, but not to this extent.” Torrent knew _all_ about internal rumours and leaks. He’d made considerable use of them during his two decades as a double agent within the Imperial army.

“And the patient hasn’t been any trouble, either.” Fives still thought his sister might have finally taken leave of her senses, and knew all too well that, even scarcely able to walk, a Force-sensitive could do some serious damage. Their legion had suffered badly when their temporary General had turned traitor, and Fives had been in the firing line in more ways than one. But Nai was, if anything, the polar opposite of Krell, or would be, Force willing.

Torrent chimed the door on the visitors’ behalf (still so formal, even now), and they were admitted. Naidoldar Douzar was, indeed, awake, and Helli could sense that she was no longer in pain thanks to AZI’s and Gungi’s skill. She was also aware of Mon’s disquiet at the absence of any restraints, but Nai was a refugee, not a prisoner. Helli had made that clear straight away.

Introductions first. “Senator Mothma, may I present Padawan Naidoldar Douzar. Nai, this is Senator Mon Mothma of Chandrila.”

“Yes, I know who you are.” Nai’s speech was a little slurred by the after-effects of a general anaesthetic, but there was nothing wrong with her other brain functions – including her sabre-sharp wit. “Greetings, Senator.” Helli could tell that the temptation to say “ex-Senator” had been strong, but not strong enough.

“Greetings, Padawan Douzar. How are you feeling?” Courtesy came rather more naturally to Mon.

“I’ve felt better – and worse. Your medical droid knows what he’s doing.” This was to Helli, but AZI’s body language suggested that he’d realised that this was, from Nai, high praise.

“Do you feel up to talking about what brought you here?” Mon made the question as gentle as she could, but Helli still picked up a surge of annoyance from the ex-Inquisitor, and put a hand over her sister’s. “You don’t have to just yet. Not if you don’t want to.”

“No, I can cope. The sooner you know, the sooner you can decide what to do with me.” Nai must have deduced that her presence on a rebel base would not meet with widespread approval. She levered herself into a sitting position, deftly dodging Helli’s attempt to take the weight off her still-healing right arm, and braced herself for possibly the first honest conversation she had had in some time, bar the one with Helli and Gungi back on Kef Bir. “Where would you like me to begin?”

“Why don’t you start with who you are and where you’re from?” Mon was all charm, now that she had actually met Nai. The best kind of politician, as she had always been. “I find background details can be remarkably helpful.”

“Very well.” Nai tipped her head back and closed her eyes, perhaps assembling the facts Mon wanted, and that, if Helli were any judge, were at least partly behind a wall of trauma-response. “I was born on Serenno, forty-two standard years ago.” Two years younger than Helli, then. That was about right. “I don’t remember much about my blood-family. Like most Jedi, I was taken from them very young – about five. I grew up in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, but when I was twelve Master Kirl Jemath chose me as his apprentice, and he was based in the Temple on Dantooine. We rarely left the Outer Rim, something I rather resented. I grew to love him, and thinking back on it I believe he grew to love me, but we never really got on. He was always trying to correct what he saw as my stubbornness and arrogance; I thought he was harsh and restrictive, and I missed my friends on Coruscant. He believed implicitly in the Jedi Code; I thought it was dull and the Council hypocrites. I was his padawan for four years, and I can’t remember a single day without an argument.”

A wry smile had touched her lips as she recounted her relationship with her teacher, but it faded as she reached the next phase of her life. “Then Geonosis happened. Count Dooku fled after the battle, as you know, and Master Jemath and I were sent to intercept him. As it turned out, _he_ had planned to intercept _us_. Or rather, me. Master Jemath tried to arrest him, it soon became single combat, and my master was competent with the sabre, but not in Dooku’s league. I’d done my best to help, but Dooku pinned me to the wall with the Force until he had my teacher disarmed and half-conscious at his feet. I expected to die alongside him, but Dooku had other plans. He told me about the Sith, about the Dark Side, and he made it sound so attractive. It was like the way I imagine falling in love feels. Not with Dooku,” she was quick to reassure a suddenly alarmed Helli, “but with what he was offering me. Freedom from the rules that had hemmed me in all my life. Powers and skills I’d only dreamed of. The promise of high status in the new regime, not servitude to the Senate. I couldn’t resist.”

Of course she couldn’t. There was a reason some Jedi and others who studied the Dark Side often described the process of being turned as seduction. To a sixteen-year-old girl, bored and at odds with her master, its promises would have been attractive indeed, however empty.

Nai had faltered for a moment, getting her thoughts straight again, but she soldiered on. “When he told me to prove my allegiance to his master – to _kill_ my old master, and break my Jedi sabre – I didn’t hesitate. Master Jemath was in no state to fight back. I made it as quick as I could. Even so, I’ve never forgotten the look on his face, just buried it. He was horrified, and scared – not for himself, I realise now, but for me. He knew what I would become. But he wasn’t angry. Stars help me, I think he _forgave_ me.” She ground to a halt again. Helli threaded her hand through her new friend’s, and Nai only began to pull away, out of habit rather than deliberately.

She took a few heartbeats to compose herself, then continued. “For three years, while the war raged, I was Dooku’s student in the ways of the Dark Side, and his servant. He made it clear I wasn’t his apprentice, claiming it was because of the “rule of two”, although everyone knew he was training that -,” she used an insult Helli had never heard before and didn’t particularly want to hear again, “Ventress as his padawan. I accompanied one or the other of them on a few occasions, until Ventress and I had a professional disagreement that nearly ruined our mission – and the building we were in.” Another amused smile twitched the corners of her mouth. “For the most part, my tasks were to study and to research. I constructed a new sabre for myself, using a crystal Dooku gave me, and ideas I’d had while making my first one that Professor Huyang didn’t approve of. I learned to use a Sith holocron to find information Lord Sidious or Dooku needed, more quickly than they could. And I trained my body to a level I’d never believed possible, using techniques I found in the holocron. I met Lord Sidious a few times, always by holo, but never saw his face or learned his true identity. I resented that a little, but understood the need for secrecy – especially after the end of the war.” Now it was Helli’s turn to flinch, almost imperceptibly. The pain Order 66 and its aftermath had caused her still lingered, years after letting go of everyone and everything she had lost. A faint pressure on her hand told her Nai was starting to understand that.

“When the Inquisitorius was founded, after the Purge,” another microscopic flinch, another vague attempt at apology or consolation, “I joined it as Third Sister. I was told to forget my real name, and my life as a Jedi. I was a servant of the Sith, which I believed was a great honour, although I resented taking third place to a Temple guard and a new recruit. Lord Sidious said it was to avoid the appearance of favouritism. I was his late apprentice’s personal student and hailed from his home planet; the others might think I hadn’t earned my place. It didn’t take long to realise that any additional source of disagreement between us would have been catastrophic. As it was, most missions that required more than one of us ended very badly. The Dark Side does not encourage co-operation.” Another wry smile, but Helli didn’t see anything amusing about the failed missions she had heard about. They normally ended with a lot of people dead, sometimes including one or more Inquisitors. “Neither Lord Sidious nor, when he took over our training, Lord Vader saw fit to correct that. I sometimes wondered whether they should do so. Even when I considered the Jedi to be hypocrites, I knew that one of their – our – strengths was the ability to work together, always looking out for one another.”

The slight, sad smile barely visible on Nai’s face faded as memories of her Inquisitor’s education flooded her mind with pain, but her voice betrayed little to none of it. “Lord Vader continued Dooku’s training. He taught us to rely on the Dark Side and on our own skills, not on other people, and not necessarily on our physical abilities. To be able to lose anything and carry on.” An involuntary glance towards her cybernetic leg. Anakin had severed her natural one teaching her that lesson. “And he taught us to attack rather than defend. To use our anger and not eliminate it. When we were ready, he sent us out to track down the Empire’s most determined and skilled enemies – mostly the surviving Jedi. I did that to the best of my ability for twenty years. I was serving the Empire and the Lords of the Sith, and I was proud to do so. Guilt and remorse were for other people. _Weaker_ people.” A touch of that pride had entered her voice. Leaving morality aside (if that were possible), her record as Third Sister _was_ impressive, in its way.

“We know what the Inquisitorius did, and do. Helli and her people have kept a close eye on them since they met you for the first time. Why don’t you tell us what brought you here?” Only long familiarity told Helli that Mon was growing a touch impatient, and was aware that she had other duties.

“The Empire still believes that most of the Jedi have been eliminated, apart from Skywalker, and you and your padawans.” This last was to Helli. “Some years ago, we switched focus to the children of the Force who might grow up to become Jedi. If possible, we were to capture them to be trained in the Dark Side, as we had been, but from a much younger age. If not, we were to kill them.” Helli knew that already. Her friends Ahsoka, Kanan, Ezra, Zeb and Chopper had once interrupted Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister on a mission of that kind. “Yesterday, I was sent to Serenno. A five-year-old girl had shown signs of Force-sensitivity. Saved one of her playmates from a nasty accident. I did my best to convince her to come with me, but the longer we argued, the less certain of my own convictions I became. She reminded me so much of myself as a child, before either the Jedi or the Sith found me. I knew from experience that forcing her to join the Dark Side at that stage would destroy her, and if I waited there was a good chance that a Jedi would claim her first. My duty was clear – I had to kill her. But – I couldn’t.” Speech became temporarily impossible. Helli dared an arm around Nai’s shoulders, and Nai leaned in to the contact, ever so slightly, until she had recovered enough to continue.

“I hadn’t been sent in alone. A detachment of stormtroopers had accompanied me as backup. One of them started to point his blaster at the girl. I destroyed it.” A satisfied smile crossed her face. “I wanted to remove his arm, too, but the girl’s presence held me back. I shouted at her to run, then covered her retreat as the stormtroopers fired on both of us. They’re _terrible_ shots, but one still got past my guard.” Her hand went to the laser burn on her right arm. “I made it to my ship, but had no time to set the coordinates properly. The moment I was clear, I jumped to hyperspace, not caring where I ended up. As you know, that turned out to be the Endor system. I tried to land on the forest moon, at the Imperial base, but before I reached it the report of my actions on Serenno arrived, and I was met by a TIE squadron. Shaking them off was harder than usual with my arm injured. They forced me down on Kef Bir. My leg was damaged in the crash, but I knew I had to keep moving. There was a stormtrooper detail already there, making one final survey, and another had been sent from Endor by shuttle. The first lot didn’t take long to find me, and I’m ashamed to admit how easily they herded me towards the reinforcements. You know the rest.” Helli did. She had been making her own survey of Endor’s ocean moon, and had seen Nai just before the trap closed. From there, it had been straight-line flying.

She put her arms fully around her sister, holding her as tightly as she dared, and received a tentative embrace in return. Mon, looking a little left-out, cleared her throat for attention after a moment. “Thank you for telling us that. I know it can’t have been easy for you. I have to speak to the rest of the Alliance command, but if you want to stay with us, I’m sure a way can be found. If not, we will still do our best for you. Apart from anything else, I doubt Helli will accept any less, and I don’t know anyone here apart from her team who would dare to cross her.”

“Thank you.” The words still sounded rusty on Nai’s tongue. “I will need some time to think about it.”

“And to heal.” AZI’s voice made them all jump. They had forgotten he was there. “The damage to your leg will not be fully repaired for some days.”

“Well, that should give you a bit of breathing space.” Helli managed a smile. Then she saw her chrono. “Sweet stars, we were meant to be in debriefing a quarter of an hour ago. Is there anything else either of us can do for you, before we vanish off?”

Nai looked thoughtful for a moment. “Is there a way to find out what happened to the girl on Serenno?”

“I know someone who’ll be able to tell us.” Helli activated her comm. “Spark, can you find Alex for me, please? Ask him to come to Nai’s room in med-bay.”

“He’s already here.” Torrent, not Spark. “Looking for you and Senator Mothma.”

“Send him in, please.” Helli cut the connection as the door opened to admit ex-ISB Agent Kallus. “Hello, Alex. I’d like you to meet Padawan Naidoldar Douzar. Nai, this is Alexsandr Kallus, of our intelligence division. Whatever you need to know, just ask him. Now, we’d better be off. I’ll see you both later.”

Neither Nai nor Kallus was listening. They had eyes only for each other. _Skies above_ , Helli thought as she and Mon made an unobtrusive exit. _That_ was a complication she hadn’t foreseen. But it could wait, she hoped. She and her teams had to report their findings from the Endor survey – and, in edited form, the Inquisitor’s tale.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm conscious that my last few fics have been a bit on the dark side (lack of capitals intentional). The next one should hopefully fix that.


End file.
